


It Takes Three

by opalmatrix



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bravery, Canon Gay Character, Fear, Female Character of Color, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Magic, POV Female Character, Spells & Enchantments, Teacher-Student Relationship, Youkai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-01
Updated: 2012-05-01
Packaged: 2017-11-04 15:36:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/395426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taki never thought she'd be facing this type of challenge.  Fortunately, she's not facing it alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Takes Three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Qem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/gifts).



> For [**qem_chibati**](http://qem-chibati.dreamwidth.org) in **rarewomen 2012**. Beta by **[smillaraaq](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Smillaraaq/pseuds/Smillaraaq/)**

"There," said Aunt Tōko, tucking in a packet of gummies to take up the last space in Natsume's bag. "That should be enough to last the afternoon. Oh, is that Tanuma-kun at the door?"

It was. His knapsack looked only a little less well-stuffed than Natsume's. "Hello, Fujiwara-san! Wow, what's in that, Natsume? It's huge!"

"Tōko-san always packs a great lunch," said Natsume. "There's a couple of different bentos, fruit, all kinds of snacks, sodas, candy ... ."

"I don't want either of you to get hungry on your hike. You have a beautiful day for it. It's too bad Tōru-chan couldn't come - such a nice girl."

"Yeah, it's rotten that she has holiday homework, " said Tanuma. "It's not her fault she got sick right before exams."

"She'll still have some time to have fun after the make-up exam, I guess," answered Natsume.

"Yes, but who can tell what the weather will be like by then? Spring is so changeable." Aunt Tōko sighed, then smiled. "Speaking of which, you two should not waste another moment of this pretty day."

She waved the two boys off from the front gate of the house. Natsume and Tanuma trotted off down the road to the woods. The late March day was unusually bright and warm, just as Tōko had said. "Where's Ponta?" asked Tanuma.

"He went off this morning, muttering something about that sake spring he said he found." They walked down several familiar paths and eventually came to a fork in the way that marked the limits of their earlier rambles.

"Where now?" asked Tanuma. "Uphill, or straight ahead?"

"I don't care. Jan-ken-pon? If you win, we go straight." 

"OK. Jan ... ken ... pon!"

Tanuma's hand stayed in a fist. Natsume's was held out flat. "Uphill it is," said Natsume. 

"Just a minute." Tanuma looked around in the undergrowth off the path and came up with two stones, one about the size of a baseball and the other perhaps half that. He arranged them at the edge of the trail they were taking, with the smaller stone on the uphill side.

"What's that for?"

"It's a way to mark the path. I saw it in a book."

"You don't really think we're going to get lost, do you?"

"No, but ... ." Tanuma smiled and shrugged. Natsume shook his head, and they continued on. 

The path was almost overgrown with saplings and other wild plants. After the first five minutes, the going got quite steep. Soon Tanuma was panting with effort, and Natsume looked at him with concern. "We should take a break."

"No, I'm fine. And I think we're coming to a clearing - see how much brighter it is up ahead?"

"All right, but we're going to stop there and catch our breath."

"Yes ... oh!"

The clearing was a couple of hundred feet across, and at its end was a huge camphor tree. It looked very old, with thick, knotted roots rearing up out of the soil. "That's really something," said Natsume. "It's nice and shady there too." They sat on two of the massive roots and dug into their bags for drinks and snacks. The wind whispered through the branches of the old tree. After a couple of moments, Tanuma raised his head. "Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"It sounds like ... a baby crying."

"That's crazy," said Natsume, slowly, but after a moment, he heard it too. "It sounds like it's right over there, on the other side of the tree."

They climbed over the roots and around the massive tree trunk. "It _**is**_ a baby!" exclaimed Tanuma, and reached down between two of the mighty roots. Natsume suddenly felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Tanuma, wait! Don't -"

The crying stopped. "It disappeared!" cried Tanuma. "What ...?"

Natsume grabbed his shoulder and then froze. A huge figure towered above them, dressed in the rags of a kimono. Three eyes stared sardonically down at them. "Got you now!" said a deep voice.

* * *

Taki laid down her pencil and pressed her hands to the sides of her head. Math was not her favorite subject, but usually she was able to get good grades in it. Right now, though, her skull felt too crammed with ideas.

"Tōru-chan?" said her mother, poking her head around the door to Taki's room. "How is the studying going? Oh - do you have a headache?"

"I finally finished this problem set," said Taki, trying not to sound as though she were whining. "I think I get it now."

"Let me see ... . Hmmm, yes. I think you made a little error here, though. Is this really the right value for _b_?"

"Oh ... no. I guess ... it's seven?"

"You shouldn't have to guess, Tōru-chan."

Taki bit her lip. Math was so hateful sometimes. She grabbed a piece of scratch paper and laid the equation out again. Finally: "It's nine."

"Very good. There's only one more set of problems, isn't there? You look tired and sad. Why don't you stop for today? There are five more days until your makeup exam. It's beautiful outside, and I think some fresh air will help clear the cobwebs from your brain. I'll pack you a lunch, and you can spend the rest of the day outdoors."

Taki hugged her mother. "May I call Natsume-kun and Tanuma-kun and see what they're doing?"

"Of course you may."

While her mother gathered lunch together, Taki dialed Natsume's number. "Fujiwara-san? Is Natsume-kun there?"

"Tōru-chan, isn't it? No, he and Tanuma-kun have gone off to the woods. He said something about exploring a path they'd never taken before."

"Oh! I wonder if I could catch up with them."

"Well, it probably depends on when they stop to eat lunch. Shall I tell him you called?"

"Please do. Thanks, Fujiwara-san."

_A path they'd never taken before._ She was pretty sure she knew which trail Natsume had meant, but which way had they gone? The path split at that spot. She got out her school bag and helped her mother fill it with rice balls, cold chicken, fruit, a can of milk tea, and a bottle of water. As soon as she got out of sight of the house, she broke into a trot.

It was a beautiful day, and the sun was actually quite bright and hot. She was panting and sweaty by the time she reached the fork in the way. How could she tell which way the boys had gone? She examined the ground, but it was dry and rather stony - and how would she know if any footprints she _did_ find were Natsume and Tanuma's?

She noticed the two stones, side by side, with the smaller one toward the uphill side of the fork. They could have been there for ages - but the soil clinging to the side and bottom of the larger stone was still slightly moist and damp. Had one of the boys set the stones that way? She had no other clues, so she started up the hill.

After a short while, the trail came out of the woods into a large clearing. At the far end of the open space was a huge camphor tree, knotted and twisted with age. There seemed to be something - several somethings - among the roots that emerged from the ground around the base of the tree. Taki walked slowly forward and recognized Natsume's bag and Tanuma's knapsack.

There was no sign of either boy. A half-eaten package of chips was perched on one of the massive roots, its contents scattered, and a bottle of lemon soda lay on its side, a damp patch on the ground beneath it showing where the drink had spilled out.

_Where did they go?_ Taki peered into Natsume's bag and saw something flat, carefully wrapped in a cloth, behind the bento boxes and other food. She carefully drew it out. As she suspected, it was Natsume's grandmother's book. After a moment's thought, she tucked it into her own bag.

Unexpectedly, she heard a baby crying.

Slowly she stood up, zipping the top of her bag shut and putting it over her shoulder. There was no one around. "Hello!" she called out. "Is anyone here?"

The baby was still crying. It sounded tired and unhappy. And there was still no one in sight. Taki backed away from the tree and circled around at a distance. _This makes no sense,_ she thought. 

The crying stopped, and she heard the sound of something heavy slithering. Then a deep voice chuckled, and heavy footsteps sounded, moving toward her.

Taki turned and ran. She pelted down the path to the fork in the road, stumbling and falling to one knee as the ground flattened out. She staggered to her feet and ran on. She didn't stop until she reached the yard of her own house.

What could she do? It had to be a _youkai_. Had it captured the boys? What would Mother say? And Tanuma's father, and Natsume's aunt and uncle? Gulping, she crept in through the back door. Mother didn't seem to be around. In the kitchen, Taki found a note saying that she had gone to meet a friend for lunch and then to buy food for dinner.

Taki's gut was icy cold, so she went to the bathroom. As she was washing her hands and her sweaty face, she noticed something odd about the mirror. Near the top was a wet, dripping circle, as though someone had traced a water-soaked finger over the glass.

Her heart thumping, Taki spun around. She saw nothing at first, and then she saw a small wad of tissue paper rolling along the floor. Perhaps a little air current had it - except that then it reversed direction for several centimeters before reversing again, continuing on its earlier course toward the bathroom door. "Wait," said Taki.

The paper wad stopped.

"Should I ... follow you?"

It rolled rolled back and forth a few times, then continued on to the door, where it stopped. Taki quickly dried her hands and face, took a deep breath, and opened the door. The paper wad rolled out into the hall and toward the back door. Taki let it out into the yard.

It rolled out to the bare, sandy spot under the laundry drying poles and proceeded to circle around, until it had made a distinct circular track in the dirt, about a meter across. Then it rolled toward Taki again. She gritted her teeth and did not flinch away. It tapped gently at the toe of her shoe and then rolled back to its circle.

"Do you want me to ... draw a spell circle? Maybe - so I can talk to you?" asked Taki.

The paper wad bounced right off the ground, about a centimeter into the air, and then rolled back and forth as it had in the bathroom.

"All right," said Taki. "But not out here, OK? Someone might see us. Let's go to the storehouse."

The paper wad trailed after her as she crossed the yard. Inside the storehouse, Taki swept the floor of the main room and then took down from a shelf the box of drawing and writing supplies she kept there. The paper wad stayed by the door, trembling a little from time to time. At last, Taki took out a stick of charcoal and slowly, carefully, drew on the wooden boards the spell circle that she had learned from her grandfather, Taki Shin'ichiro. As soon as the diagram was complete, the paper wad zipped toward it. When the little ball crossed the inner boundary of the circle, the figure of a slender, masked woman appeared.

The _youkai_ was not much taller than Taki. She had straw-colored hair about the same length as Taki's, and she wore a long, dark, plain _haori_ over a simple pale _kimono_. Her mask was also simple, with horns like a cow's at the temples, an enigmatically smiling mouth, a tiny blob of a nose, and a single staring eye. There was a single large crack in one side of the mask, below the curved horn. Over her back was slung a large sword. "Who are you?" asked Taki.

"I am called Hīragi. I serve Shūichi Natori-sama."

"Oh, the actor? Natsume said he could see _youkai_. Where is he? Maybe he could help!"

"Yes, you looked to be in trouble," said the _youkai_. "But my master is not anywhere nearby, He did not take me on this journey, but he charged me with looking in on Natsume while he was gone. But Natsume was not in his home. When I went to look in the woods, I saw you come running out."

"I went there to look for Natsume-kun too! His aunt said that he and Tanuma-kun had gone for a hike. When I went after them, I found their bags and some of their food, dropped. It looked like they got up and left in a hurry. And then I heard a baby crying, and something big that I couldn't see started chasing me! I thought it must be a dangerous _youkai_. What if it ate them?"

Hīragi couldn't frown, but her posture looked tense and alert. "That could well be a _youkai_. You made this spell circle. Can you do any other spells?"

"N-no. My grandfather only taught me this one."

"Could he do other magic?"

"I d-don't think so. He died when I was very small."

Hīragi shifted from one foot to the other for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. "We need help. Have you eaten? You will need strength. I will go get an ally." With that, she stepped out of the circle and vanished.

Taki blinked, dismayed. How long would Hīragi be gone? They had only a few hours before Natsume's and Tanuma's families would notice that the boys were missing. Slowly she walked back to the house to get her bag, brought it back to the storehouse, and reluctantly settled down to eat her lunch on the floor near the spell circle. When she was finished, she got down a drawing tablet and tried to make notes about what had happened. She was finishing a sketch of Hīragi when a flash of movement in the circle caught her eye.

This _youkai_ was taller than Hīragi, and much more striking in appearance. Her long, wavy hair was a deep purple. The back part was caught up and pinned, while the shorter locks in front fell over her lovely face so that they hid one eye. The visible eye was also purple, as was her elegant silk brocade coat, which was woven in a pattern of large flowers. The layered _kimono_ that showed at the open, square neck of the coat ranged from palest pink on the outer layers to a deep violet against her pale skin. She was beautifully made up, with lavender eye shadow and plum-colored lips. She gazed at Taki meditatively for a moment and then drew a long, slender pipe from one of her full sleeves.

It didn't look like this one was going to introduce herself. Taki wiped her hands on a tissue and stood up. "Hello. I'm Taki Tōru."

"Hmmm, yes," said the beautiful _youkai_. "This is a strong spell circle, but it's not very big. Make another one, right over there."

"What?" said Taki, confused.

"Come on, get with it. We need to talk, and there's not really enough room for Hīragi right in here with me."

Embarrassed, Taki drew another circle where the newcomer had pointed. The _youkai_ packed her pipe with some herb and lit it, then watched Taki's efforts with a critical air. As soon as the circle was complete, Hīragi appeared in its center. "That's better," said the newcomer, and blew out a thin stream of aromatic smoke.

"This is Hinoe. She is wise in the matter of curses and other magic," said Hīragi.

Hinoe pursed her lips at Hīragi's introduction and pointedly turned away from her. "I've heard of your grandfather," she said to Taki. "They say he never really showed much true power. But your ancestors were able diviners, girl, and these circles of yours have strength. Did your grandfather leave behind any books of spells?

"N-no, I don't think so."

"Really? This place feels half soaked with power. Have you ever searched it for hidden things?"

"Well, I clean it all the time. Last time, Natsume-kun and Tanuma-kun helped. We woke a dangerous _youkai_ , and Natsume-kun's cat had to help deal with it."

Hinoe made an exasperated noise. "Madara is not really a cat, you know."

"But Natsume calls him Nyanko-sensei."

"Where is that cat blob, anyway? He's supposed to be protecting Takashi."

"He wasn't at Natsume-kun's house, and I didn't come across him in the woods," said Hīragi. "I could go look for him." 

Hinoe made an dismissive gesture. "The world is a big place, and we don't have a lot of time, if that konaki-jijī has really got the boys. Let's turn out this storehouse properly, girl. I have an idea."

The following hour was one of the busiest Taki had ever spent. Hinoe, who could whisper in Taki's ear even when Taki could not see her, pointed out nooks and crannies that Taki had never noticed before in all her years of cleaning the old storehouse. Hīragi could go through walls and into tiny spaces, but she could not physically move anything much heavier than the paper wad she'd used to attract Taki's attention earlier, so if she found anything, Taki had to move whatever was in the way to check the discovery. They found odd little bits and pieces that Hinoe said were old protective charms and a very wicked-looking old knife. Finally, Hīragi reported to Hinoe that she'd found a false bottom in a cupboard filled with old comforters.

Taki shifted all the comforters out onto an old sheet on the floor. The bottom of the cupboard appeared to be a solid piece of wood, although it made a hollow noise when she rapped on it. She ran her fingers around the edge, where it touched the walls, and got a sliver in one finger. "Don't be such a baby," said Hinoe, as Taki sucked at the tiny wound. "Check those corners right inside the doorway,"

This time, Taki felt a crescent-shaped notch in the edge of the wooden board. She carefully hooked her finger into it and pulled up. The wood came up easily, like another door, hinged somehow at the far edge. Underneath was a large, flat package wrapped carefully in black silk. "Oooh, how interesting," said Hinoe, in Taki's ear. "Let's have that out."

Back in the main room, Taki laid the package on the floor between the two spell circles, then cautiously unwrapped the cloth as Hinoe and Hīragi reappeared. There on the black fabric were two hand-bound books, one larger than the other. The smaller one had notes about and drawings of _youkai_ , according to Hinoe - Taki could hardly read half of the old-style characters. The large one had more of the same writing - and diagrams of spell circles and other written charms.

"Ahhh, I knew it," said Hinoe. "Turn those pages slowly for me, girl. No, no, ... not that one. Hmmm ...hey now, stop right there!" Taki thought it looked like her grandfather's spell circle, but the figure in the middle was not an eye, and the characters around the edges were not the same either.

"That's an old form of the character for 'flesh,' there in the center," instructed Hinoe. "Your circle compels _youkai_ to be visible; this one compels them to be present in the flesh and to stay. Take your tablet and your pencil and practice drawing that - quickly."

"Will it work for me?"

"I'm not sure, but as I said, your circles show signs of real strength. Put your will into your work there. When you have a good clean copy, you can take it with you. I can also give you some of my own charms and curses to place around it: give me some paper, there, and your ink and brushes. And Hīragi doesn't carry that sword just for show, I can assure you. That konaki-jijī is in for a surprise, if he thinks he can attack Natsume Takashi without consequences." The last words were almost a snarl, shocking to hear from such an elegant face.

Taki drew the new circle, then drew it again after Hinoe pointed out some errors. She was copying it for the third time when Hinoe finished her own work - four squares of _washi_ paper covered with characters that Taki couldn't read. "I need some sticks that we can use to put these up like sign posts," said Hinoe.

Take stood up and stretched her cramped fingers and legs. "There's a stack of garden stakes in the shed."

"Those should do. We can use that knife to cut notches in the top of them." When Taki came back with the four stakes, Hinoe showed her how to set up the charms. "You will draw your circle, then set these up at the four points of the wind. I'll tell when you have them in the right place. Then you have only to make the konaki-jijī run across into the circle. Now pack these carefully - put them between the pages of your tablet. What's that in your bag?"

"I think it's Natsume-kun's grandmother's book. It was in his bag, on the ground."

"Hmmm, you're wiser than you know. Let's go."

"That's it?" said Taki. She didn't seem to be having much luck getting air into her lungs.

"It's late afternoon - we shouldn't wait any longer, yes?"

"No, you're right," said Taki, miserably. The fear that she had felt when she ran from the monster earlier was returning, but she zipped up her pack and opened the door to the storehouse. "I should erase these circles."

"Do it quickly, then," ordered Hinoe.

Mother still seemed to be away, which was just as well. Taki made herself walk briskly to the woods. When she got to the fork in the path, she stopped and looked back. "Right here," said Hinoe, in her ear. "Ah - Hīragi says to put up the sleeves of your sweater for a moment and hold out your arms."

Wondering, Taki did so. She felt the lightest of touches on skin, one arm and then the other. When she moved her arms in the rays of sunlight coming down through the leaves of the trees, she could see, very faintly, a shimmer or gleam.

Hinoe chuckled. "Very good! I didn't know you could do that, Hīragi! That'll help protect you if the konaki-jijī actually attacks you, girl. Come on, we have a rescue to perform."

"How will we find them, even if we can stop the monster?"

"He'll have them nearby. His place will be obvious - some strange rock formation or an old tree."

"There's a huge camphor tree up there. I found their bags among its roots."

"That'll be it. Roll down your sleeves and get moving,"

The walk up the hill seemed to take forever, yet all too soon they were at the clearing. The tree loomed at the end. Hinoe hissed like a cat from behind Taki's shoulder. "Indeed, yes. I can feel it from here. Find your place and go to work, missy."

Taki drew in a deep breath and then wandered across the clearing as carelessly as she could. _Out for a picnic ... don't mind me, I'm just going to have a snack and draw that strange old tree,_ she told herself. When she reached a fairly bare spot of ground, she dropped her pack and all the stakes but one, then started scratching in the dirt. It was hard to make the circle both large and properly round - she should have brought a piece of cord, as well. Now the inner circle ... sweat was prickling along the back of her neck. If it was watching her, would it suspect that she was working against it? She stopped to look at her drawing of the ward, aimlessly waving a pencil over it as though she were sketching, and then laboriously traced the twelve strange characters around the edges, between the outer and inner circles. Now the central glyph ... . Was that right?

"Good," whispered Hinoe. "Now the stakes, and my charms. Move around toward the path - there, that's south. Directly across will be north - good enough. Now walk around the edge - stop. This is east. And across - west. Excellent. Can't you feel it, girl? See it?"

_Something_ was there. The air around the circle seemed to shimmer in the late-afternoon sun, stretching upward to form walls like the sides of a glass. Faint violet lines crossed and re-crossed from the stakes that supported Hinoe's charms. "Yes," said Taki, firmly.

"You're the true child of your ancestors. Go now, and bring that demon here."

Taki walked toward the tree. The boys' bags were where she had left them, on the ground. Ants were eating the chips and clustering around the sticky spot where the soda had spilled. As she stepped on the roots that rose from the soil, she heard the crying start, just like before. She stopped and listened. Again, there was the sound of something slithering over the roots on the far side. She backed away, and the heavy steps came after her.

"You came back," said a deep voice from above. "Want your boyfriends, do you? Want to be part of my collection? I always mean to keep them, but then they look so tasty, I never had three at one time before ... ."

_Natsume and Tanuma were alive!_

She turned to run. It was hard to slow her feet so that she wouldn't outpace the creature again, to head away from the path out of the clearing and instead turn toward the trap that she had built. The footsteps were closer now, but there were the four stakes, Hinoe's charms fluttering from them in the light breeze. Would the monster notice, or care?

A deep, wicked chuckle came from close behind her. Her heart clenched with panic and she ran right between the stakes, the feet of the _youkai_ pounding after her. As she leapt out of the circle on the far side, an inhuman bellow shattered the breezy quiet of the clearing.

Taki landed on her hands and knees, panting. She scrambled around and saw, within the shimmering walls of the spell, a huge figure dressed in the rags of a kimono. Three eyes squinted with rage. It was squirming about, trying to avoid the glowing lines that ran back and forth between the charmed stakes. "I'll get you, I'll crush you, I'll devour you!" it roared. One huge hand punched through the wall of the spell circle. Taki gulped and jumped to her feet, ready to run for the path out of the clearing.

There was a tearing, breathy scream, like a gust of wind broken by the eaves of a roof, and a startlingly merry tinkle of little bells, and something bright cut through the monstrous wrist. There was no blood, but the figure within the circle howled and grew slightly smaller. Hinoe laughed in Taki's ear, making her jump. "Ha hah, five points, Hīragi! Well done!"

The monster _youkai_ had not learned its lesson. The lines of power that pierced it seemed to madden it with pain. Again and again it tried to break through the circle, and every time, Hīragi's blade cut another bit of it off. Now the creature was no larger than Taki.

"Well, well, what's this mess?" someone sneered.

Nyanko-sensei was standing at the head of the path, the sunlight glittering in his eyes,

"Good afternoon, Madara," drawled Hinoe, at the edge of Taki's hearing. "The young lady here found that this konaki-jijī had grabbed your precious Takashi. And where were you, hmm? Good thing missy has both power and guts, wouldn't you say?"

"Does that flutter-brained exorcist know you have his _shiki_ here?" inquired Nyanko-sensei, as another bit of the monster was sheared off into oblivion.

"She told us he's otherwise occupied, just as you were," said Hinoe. "Now she's no longer bored by his absence."

"Hmmm," said Nyanko-sensei, coming over and inspecting the spell circle. "It does seem that there's nothing much left for me to do here. But this is taking forever. It's like Hīragi is making live sashimi here." With one pudgy foot, he casually wiped out one of the characters within the outer circle.

Taki, stunned, watched the spell wall flicker and fade. The monster, now the size of a ten-year old child, lunged for her. Reflexively, she held her arms up before her to fend it off.

There was a burst of green light, and the _youkai_ staggered, blinking its three eyes. In that moment, Hīragi's blade cut it in two.

A pitiful little three-eyed creature, no taller than Taki's bag, looked up to see Nyanko-sensei stalking toward it. "Run, you little rat," suggested Hinoe.

The konaki-jijī disappeared into the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing. Nyanko-sensei yowled, frustrated. "You interfering woman! I was just in the mood for a snack!" He bounded after the diminutive monster, shouting warnings and threats about what would happen to it if it ever showed up in this part of the woods again.

Taki breathed a sigh of relief and looked around, but of course she still could not see either of her companions. "Hinoe-san, Hīragi-san, thank you."

"Well, you did most of the work, missy. Not that I'm selling Hīragi's bladework short. Does Natori really know what he has working for him, eh?"

If Hīragi answered, Taki could not hear it. She walked cautiously toward the camphor tree, wondering where the boys where. Nyanko-sensei emerged from the bushes, still muttering. "You didn't help with the hunt, so you don't get a share of the spoil, Madara," said Hinoe, drily. "Too bad. That will teach you to sleep the day away when you should be guarding Reiko's grandson. Hmm, I hear someone snoring."

"There was this _sake_ spring," said Nyanko-sensei, huffily. "I can't expect someone of your pedestrian tastes to understand."

As Taki climbed over the tree roots to look around the back of the huge tree, Hinoe chuckled in her ear. "Ah, isn't that _charming?_ " she said. There, in what was almost a nest of tangled tree roots, Natsume and Tanuma were curled up fast asleep, with their arms around each other. Taki couldn't help it: she burst out laughing.

"Ow," said Tanuma, blinking. "Something's sticking into my back. Huh? Natsume - !"

"What?' said Natsume, opening his eyes and lifting his head from Tanuma's shouder. "Morning already?"

They stared at each other, bewildered, and then pushed away from each other and struggled to their feet. Their cheeks were as red as cherries. Taki could hear Hinoe laughing.

"We have to get out of here! " said Natsume. "There's a huge _youkai!_

"Yeah, it grabbed us!" gasped Tanuma.

"Oh, you mean that huge three-eyed beast?" asked Hinoe, sweetly. "The one that fooled you by crying like a baby?"

"How did you know that?"

"Where did it go?

Taki felt bad for them; they sounded terrified. "Well, about that ... ."

Nyanko-sensei yawned and waved one pudgy paw at Taki. " _She_ took care of it."

Both boys stared at her, and Taki blushed. "I had help!" she protested. "Hinoe-san and Hīragi-san found an old book of spell circles in our storehouse, and Hinoe-san told me which one to use and made the charms to put around it, and Hīragi-san cut the _youkai_ into pieces once it was trapped."

"And none of that would have mattered if you hadn't been able to put yourself into that spell circle," said Hinoe, and then: "Huh, yes. Hīragi says that it still wouldn't have worked at all if you hadn't lured it into the circle. And that was after you'd been so scared of it earlier that you'd run all the way home."

"Taki - you did that?" said Tanuma, his eyes wide. "Thank you so much!"

"Yes, thanks! You're really powerful, Taki," said Natsume. "And really brave - I can't imagine doing that with something you couldn't even see."

"She kept her head," said Hinoe. "We make a good team. It's nice to know a young lady with talent." Taki heard something that sounded suspiciously like a yawn. "It's getting late. Don't you kids have to get home? Look, the sun is going down."

Natsume sighed. "And I'm starving. We never got to eat our lunch. But at least, thanks to you three, we'll be able to eat dinner." He went over, picked up his bag, and then froze. "Where ... where is - "

"Right here," said Taki, and pulled the wrapped-up book from her own bag. "I didn't want to leave it lying there when you were gone."

"Taki, you're completely amazing!"

They all walked back down the path - or at least, Taki thought they did. She trailed behind the boys and Nyanko-sensei. She felt sad, suddenly, that she couldn't see Hinoe and Hīragi, who had helped her save her two best friends.

"What's the matter, girlie?" said Hinoe, in her ear.

"I wish I could see you and Hīragi again," she whispered.

"Do you? Huh ... . Well, I guess I should come by sometime and teach you how use the rest of those circles."

"Really?"

"I said so, didn't I? Keep your ears open for me when you're outside. And that exorcist is always coming around to pester Takashi, so I'm sure you'll see Hīragi again sometime soon. Mmm, that smile's a good look on you. I like it."

Taki blushed and laughed. Natsume looked back. "What's up?" 

"Nothing," said Taki. "Just saying goodbye."

Hinoe chuckled warmly in her ear. "See you soon, Tōru." And Taki felt a faint touch on her cheek,

It felt almost like a kiss.

 


End file.
